7 hotels
The great hotels of Italy
7 luxury hotels in Italy are documented in this guide, ordered by international renown. The oldest, Grand Hotel Quisisana, opened in 1861; the most recent, Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como, in 2013. For large events, Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel receives up to 300 guests. Each page gives the history, the key figures and a direct line to the events team.
Ca' Sagredo
A 15th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal, seat of a doge's family from 1661, whose Longhi and Tiepolo decorations survive in a 42-room hotel.
42 rooms
Villa d'Este
A cardinal's villa of 1568 on Lake Como, home of Caroline of Brunswick, a hotel since 1873 with a swimming pool floating on the lake.
151 rooms
Grand Hotel Quisisana
An English doctor built the Quisisana in 1845 as a sanatorium, and its name, qui si sana, still means 'here one heals'.
Mandarin Oriental, Lago di Como
The soprano Giuditta Pasta, who created Bellini's Norma, lived at Blevio, and the resort built around her villa took its first name, CastaDiva, from her aria.
Hotel Cipriani, A Belmond Hotel
Giuseppe Cipriani opened his hotel on the Giudecca in 1958 with the only Olympic-size pool in Venice, and the saltwater pool still sets the house apart.
55 rooms · Events up to 300
Grand Hotel Tremezzo
Greta Garbo's character in the 1932 film Grand Hotel longs for Tremezzo, and the Art Nouveau palace she meant opened on Lake Como in 1910.
Grand Hotel des Iles Borromées
Ernest Hemingway convalesced here in September 1918 and later sent Frederic Henry, the hero of A Farewell to Arms, to the same hotel in Stresa.